Pattaya Elderly Club celebrates New Year

Pattaya senior citizens began 2014 with merit-making as the city’s Elderly Club invited monks to offer blessings for New Year’s.

Club President Pranee Maneesarn welcomed Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome to the Jan. 3 celebration at city hall, along with city council members and civil servants. The mayor distributed gifts to the 200 seniors present.

A revered monk blesses the senior citizens for New Year 2014.

Nine monks from Sawangfah Temple blessed members and attendees, who presented robes to the monks. The priests then donated cash to the group for its activities in the coming year.

Pattaya Public Health Department nurse Kanda Nawong said senior citizens often venture to temples at the beginning of the year to make merit and study dharma. So the department organized the event for the Elderly Club to bring monks to them.

This article was published in the Pattaya Mail newspaper on Friday January 10, 2014 (Vol. XXII No. 2).